Are you a windmiller?

In western Sichuan, the windmill is a lost earthen toy with a long history. It can be seen at least in the Song Dynasty painter Li Song's "Salesman Carrying Paintings". In the 1960s and 1970s, farmers in western Sichuan did not play mahjong during their off-farm days. Instead, they made windmills, stuck them on straw handles, and sold them to the market or into the city to replenish the oil and salt at home.

On market days, there would be many stalls selling windmills on the street. At that time, my sister and I would always use the pocket money we saved to buy several windmills of different colors. It only costs 5 cents each. I remember that rabbit heads cost 5 cents each at that time. Adults often joked that we were more important to play than to eat. The windmill rotates in our hands as we run. We children always compete with each other to see whose windmill is more beautiful and spins faster. The windmill usually breaks down after only two days of playing, so I have to save up money to buy a more beautiful windmill on the next trip day.

There are two main types of windmill shapes. One type is the perfect round shape. Mei Laokan's wife in the Sichuan dialect comedy "Laokan Inn" is nicknamed "Windmill Che'er" because her face is round and round like "Windmill Che'er". The round windmill is a bit like a waterwheel. It requires bamboo tubes as thick as chopsticks and bamboo strips to make it. I usually buy this kind of windmill. Those naughty boys sometimes make a fool of themselves. It's not very decent, but it's not as beautiful as those windmills for sale. This round windmill spins melodiously when the breeze blows, and slowly spins out the trajectory of the years in the breeze.

Another type of windmill is shaped like an orchid. Maybe many friends will do this. It is made of thicker paper, cut into a square, and cut a small half diagonally from the four corners to form four openings. Glue the four pieces on the right side of the opening at a 45-degree angle. Three-dimensional. After it dries, stick the four corners in the middle, cut a small hole, insert a bamboo skewer or a staple, and stick it firmly. Then insert it on a two-foot-long thin bamboo pole, and the orchid-shaped windmill is finished. I used to make windmills like this when I was a kid, but I always thought they were not as beautiful as the round ones.

But now it is difficult to see people selling windmills on the street. Windmills are getting farther and farther away from us.